There. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s break down a mid-season tournament win that featured an impressive victory over Michigan Tech and about what you’d expect against Michigan State.

GLI Semifinal:

Michigan v. Michigan Tech 12/28/14

1st period

UM 1 MTU 0 EV 06:28 Martin (2) from Hyman (11) and De Jong (4)

Hyman has the puck along the boards, and that causes Sturos (#7) to come down and make a futile attempt to take away the passing lane. He’s far too late, and Hyman easily gets a cross-ice pass off to Martin. The pass gets Tech’s defense skating, as no one’s covering Martin. In fact, no one’s really in position to do so, either. You can see that they have a box-plus-one, and the one is the aforementioned Sturos, who’s now on the wrong side of the ice.

Martin’s shot is going to end up going over the blocker of Tech’s Jamie Phillips, and it’s something that can best be described as a seeing-eye shot. If you look at the black box in front of the goalie, there’s not even a Michigan player in front to screen. This is a shot that just beats the goaltender; I don’t think the Tech defenders acted as screeners either.

UM 1 MTU 1 EV 10:28 Gould from Petan and Kero

Tech moves the puck down the boards and into the corner. Michigan has Downing in front, and he’s smart to not jump in and help but instead stay in front of the net. As you can see, there’s a Tech skater who’s unaccounted for who’s going to play an important part in just a moment, one which will necessitate a defender in front.

Kero (#10) makes an incredible pass from the corner to the trailing man in the faceoff circle. Petan gets the puck and fakes a shot, which causes Downing to drop to a knee in an attempt to block. Petan’s shot fake is superb, and the pass to Gould is perfect. I really can’t blame Downing for trying to block here, because he had about a tenth of a second to decide whether it was a shot or a pass and Petan executed flawlessly.

Racine tries to push across the crease to square with Gould, and in doing so he opens up the five-hole. Gould’s shot is low and just barely clips Racine’s right leg pad, deflecting down and in.

Here's some water-is-wet reporting: a couple of solid sources indicate that USC offensive line coach and running game coordinator Tim Drevno will be named Michigan's offensive coordinator in the near future.

You'd be excused—well, a little bit, at least—if you didn't sit through the nearly 40-minute-long Jim Harbaugh introductory presser. Adam already transcribed the entire thing, but if your attention span isn't cooperating, I've clipped a handful of the best moments from the most lighthearted presser in recent memory.

UNLIKE WHAT A CERTAIN FORMER ATHLETIC DIRECTOR WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE, YOU ONLY GET ONE

The look on Harbaugh's face as he's asked about his "firey personality" is priceless.

THE GO-GETTER

Great job, kid who stalked me through an airport.

(Alejandro, who does really excellent work for both the Daily and UMHoops, has made the requisite changes to his Twitter bio.)

DURKIN SEEMS IN. 247 reports that Durkin has turned down an offer to be UNC's DC and will almost certainly be announced at Michigan in the near future. This is not really news—Durkin's name has been rumored for two weeks now—but it seems likely he's announced ASAP here and starts pounding the recruiting trail. There are reports he's already talking to recruits about coming up to Ann Arbor.

We'll have to wait a few days for it to be official since Durkin is Florida's interim head coach and the Birmingham Bowl is on January 3rd. But that appears to be done-done-done.

MARROW DEFINITELY IN PLAY. Depending on who you listen to, Kentucky TE coach Vince Marrow is either not about to leave Mark Stoops…

Per source, Mark Stoops does not believe he's losing Vince Marrow to Michigan. The two are very close and Marrow is UK's recruiting ace.

One of the first assistant dominoes may fall within the next 24 to 48 hours, as Kentucky tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow has been contacted by Michigan and would take a job with the staff if offered one.

Either way it seems likely that chatter about Michigan going after him is accurate.

That's good news for current 49ers, less so for Erik Campbell and Jeff Hecklinski. Exactly who these guys might be is still murky—Harbaugh has a lot of affiliates after his days at San Francisco and Stanford.

Several of his long-time allies, including 49ers receivers coach John Morton and Tim Drevno, a former 49ers offensive line coach who last season was at USC, are believed to be joining him in Ann Arbor.

John Morton is currently the Niners WR coach; before that he had a number of roles with USC. He started as a WR coach, added "passing game coordinator" for a couple years, became the bonafide OC when Steve Sarkisian took the Washington job, and then went back to position coaching when Lane Kiffin came in. He was a WR coach a few places before that. He's a Michigan native who went to Western.

remember mapquest you guys

Tim Drevno is USC's OL coach. Drevno is a longtime Har-pal, having coached under him at San Diego, Stanford, and with the 49ers. Drevno was the OL coach for Stanford's two excellent Harbaugh offenses, forging the ass-kicking OL that Stanford came to be known for over the past half-dozen years. At San Francisco, 2012 saw all five(!) 49ers OL selected for the Pro Bowl. His line at USC last year featured three true freshmen and zero seniors; while they did give up a butt-ton of sacks USC's main back hit almost 1500 yards this year at 5.4 a pop.

Drevno was awarded the title of running game coordinator at USC, part of his reason for moving on and may require a similar title at Michigan. If Michigan is offering the same title that might close the door on Ty Wheatley some since it's been reported he wants to move up in the ranks if he's going to come back to Michigan.

WHEATLEY? The Bills are ominously "evaluating" all their assistants. If Wheatley gets pushed out of there you might as well put him in pen in Ann Arbor.

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR? Henson says Greg Roman, his current OC with the 49ers. That would make sense. Guy needs a job, knows Harbaugh well, etc. Not sure if that's happening-happening or just a guy who looks like a likely fit. Roman has been exclusively an NFL guy save for a single year in HS and two years with Stanford as the TE/OT coach, also during Stanford's nascent ass-kicking phase.

Roman is in contention for the Bucs' OC job and there's been chatter that he actually prefers the NFL, unlike Harbaugh. His coaching history suggests that. One thing that's not happening: sticking around the 49ers.

Michigan has a lot of recruiting to do in the next month, and if you're like me you stopped paying attention to it about six seconds before the end of the first half in South Bend. Each decommitment spurred wonderment that there were any recruits left to do that, all updates were guys saying LOL NO politely, focus turned to firing all the things. Now that we've acquired a Harbaugh, that promises to change.

Let's re-orient on Michigan's 2015 recruiting class.

IN THE FOLD

Michigan only has six commitments but at least they're quality ones. They are:

MI WR Brian Cole, a consensus top 100 kid and the top player in the state. Cole may be a safety and is listed as an ATH a couple places.

OH S Tyree Kinnel, a consensus four star.

NJ OT Grant Newsome, also a consensus four star.

MI QB Alex Malzone is a six-foot-ish QB in the Drew Tate mode.

PA OG Jon Runyan Jr. Legacy kid, obviously. Generic three star.

OH K Andrew David, who's a kicker. A good one, and a needed one.

ROSTER STATUS

Michigan has five open slots right now and a number coming. A few months ago the number on the class was supposed to be 16. Not sure if that included Ferns's surprising transfer. For some reason I thought Hoke mentioned that two unnamed offensive linemen are going to go on medical hardship scholarships, but I can't find anything of the sort in the presser transcripts.

Whether he said it out loud or not, some attrition at OL is inevitable. Michigan returns their entire starting five plus Erik Magnuson, and there are a couple of guys who have struggled with injuries for a long time. Some will light out for greener pastures or take medical hardships.

Other attrition might come at DT and at CB, where there's enough returning experience to squeeze out guys who are now staring down the likelihood they'll never play.

REMAINING NEEDS

Assuming 16 guys, which may be conservative:

TIGHT END: 1. If Harbaugh's Stanford tenure is any indication we're in for a buttload of TEs. Michigan does not have one in this class, but with CT TE Chris Clark still considering the Wolverines after his decommitment and tweeting out Harbaugh-related exclamations that might not last long($).

RUNNING BACK: 1. Michigan has a glut in the junior class; Ty Isaac's redshirt means that they effectively do have a back from the last class. Still, Michigan needs a guy. It doesn't sound like MI RB Mike Weber is going to come back into the fold, so they'll have to range afield. KY RB Damien Harris is not reconsidering M either.

OFFENSIVE LINE: 2. Michigan only took two in the last class and with Mason Cole starting from day one their 2014 class is effectively one dude: Juwann Bushell-Beatty. Michigan hasn't taken an interior linemen since Kugler, Dawson, and Samuelson two years ago—it's time to fill out the numbers there, especially if they lose a couple of current members of the roster.

DEFENSIVE END: 2. Michigan has just four on the roster. Edge rusher is a huge priority.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE: 1. Nose is probably set with Hurst, Mone, and Pallante all underclassmen and Glasgow emerging into a quality option. Three-tech has plenty of options right now but they'll all be redshirt juniors and Michigan has no one behind them.

LINEBACKER: 1. Still not a huge need even after Ferns's departure; should get one guy to prevent a big gap.

CORNERBACK: 1. See linebacker. Not a huge priority but good to have a guy in.

SAFETY: 1. Numbers are still thin even with Kinnel sticking.

If Michigan ends up with more space than the above assumes, WR, QB, and DT are candidates for additional reinforcements.

THE RADAR

Ace will keep you apprised of the names that might emerge to fill those holes in the regular recruitin' posts. It's a little early yet to have a set of names.

THE WATER POLO EMIRATES CUP

Shockingly won by Al Jazira over the heavily favored Al Nasr. What does this mean for the future of UAE water polo? Can former Partizan goaltender Nikola Radojicic forge the national team into a regional power?

DHONI QUITS TEST CRICKET

India's captain retires, citing strain. A tribute to a true legend of the game, a guy who played it the right way. Can Virat Kohli hope to replace Dhoni? We doubt it. Kohli's a bit of a wobble. Can't even keep his crumpets straight.

SIX NATIONS RUGBY A MESMERIZER

Ireland victorious as they come a clatter against the All Blacks. O'Neill tossed a real poofer in the final, wingeing the Scots a-dango. How will the Hottentots respond? Will the escape pod to Alpha Ceti be complete in time for the Eight Provinces Preliminaries? Will the Raja of Tambucktoo execute his back twelve for their diverse and sundry chest hair violations? Rug-a-roo and me too!